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Sunday, June 9, 2013

Winners and Losers: Texas

Here are your winners, losers, and Cone of Shame "winner" following The Firestone 550 at Texas:

Winners

Helio Castroneves
Helio climbs the fence for the first time in 2013 with a dominating win at Texas. Can he capture that all elusive championship that he is trying desperately to win?

Ryan Hunter-Reay
The Champ is doing everything well to set himself rather beautifully for the stretch of races that won him the championship last year. He was nowhere near this close to the leader at this time last year. Good news for him.

Ed Carpenter
A solid run for Ed Carpenter despite two mishaps in the pits. Quality runs for the little guys against the mega teams is always good to see. Would love to see the team expand to two cars so one can go after the championship.

Chevrolet
Domination again on the ovals for Chevy, having their own little bowtie parade in the top five. Honda was not invited, like Paul Tracy to the Indy 500 winners' dinner... Oh wait... He never won...

Losers

Scott Dixon
The poor guy can't consistently string together solid races. Just when you think he is ready to dominate the race and spring himself in the championship, a gearbox issue followed by an oil line failure killed his race. He'll be back in Milwaukee where he hopefully doesn't get downed by a phantom penalty.

Alex Tagliani
Tags and Bryan Herta Autosport are not having the best of seasons. Tags comes home a dismal P22. A complete 180 from last year at Texas after they captured the pole. Tags and Co. need to pull it together.

Graham Rahal
I was expecting so much more from Graham Rahal, who was two laps from winning the 2012 Firestone 550. Instead, Graham couldn't have been higher than 20th all night. Something needs to be figured out for the driver who should be fighting for the championship.

Honda
Another bad showing on an oval. Honda is beginning to make a habit of it. Plus, I'm a little peeved that Pippa Mann's Honda let go after a whopping four laps. I know that's a part of racing, but come on...

Cone of Shame

Scott Goodyear

Now, I won't begin to bash ABC. They think that our product, Indycar, is good enough to be shown on their network that reaches millions of people. Yes there are a lot of commercials and some questionable tactics used during the race, but I appreciate all they do for Indycar. Having said that, they can control the guys in the booth. I personally love Eddie Cheever and all of the insight he brings. He does exude enthusiasm and knows a thing or too. Marty Reid is meh but I respect him. Scott Goodyear is Utterly horrible. It's like listening to a pig whose only food choice as an infant was glue trying to explain racing. He is redundant, un-enthused, and painful to listen to. I'd love to see Parker Johnstone return to the booth but maybe that's just me. Get lost Goodyear.

3 comments:

I'm totally aghast every time INDYCAR has a race on ESPN/ABC. I must respectfully say that I do not share your view on Eddie Cheever. For someone who has the experience he has-former F1 and INDYCAR driver-he is the Captain Obvious of INDYCAR broadcasting. I also yearn for the days of Parker Johnstone; one of the most underrated motorsports broadcasters of the past. It's so sad that ESPN/ABC cares so little about INDYCAR that the Reid/Goodyear/Cheever triumvrate is what they foist upon us. Luckily, next week's race at Milwaukee is on NBCSN, where the professionals will show the amateurs how it's supposed to be done.